DC Theatre Scene . Washington’s liveliest theatre web site

by Lorraine Treanor

Wow. Queen of the Bohemian Dream opens July 21. 20 days to opening, and just this morning I got the website up, and postcard art submitted to the printer. I love producing. But it’s a job only a masochist would do more than once. Producing is a real roll of the dice. Do you have the right project? Can you get the money together? The right team to create it? Will anyone come? It’s so risky that I really have to fall in love with whatever I take on. That wasn’t hard this time (more…)

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lyrics by Charles Hart

Book by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe

Directed by Harold Prince

Presented by The Kennedy Center

Reviewed by Gary McMillan

A recent Playbill.com headline announced “Cat Destroys Lloyd Webber’s Phantom Sequel Score.” Well, Phantom’s run has surpassed the phenomenal run of Cats - so it’s not surprising that a really pissed pussycat would strike a blow for feline-kind. But we don’t need a sequel because, fortunately, the Kennedy Center’s touring production of Phantom of the Opera is a first-class, top-drawer, A-1 production - far from a CATStastrophe. It really isn’t necessary to schlep up to New York City - you won’t get an appreciable better Phantom experience there. (more…)

SHOW BUSINESS - IN IT FOR THE LOVE

Interviewed by Joel Markowitz

Produced by Lorraine Treanor

Dori Berinstein has been an insider on the Broadway scene for the past 15 years, a self-described hands-on producer of major shows - most of them hits. She’s no steely eyed, heartless number cruncher.   She’s cute, with an easy laugh. She wears a black SHOW BUSINESS cap with a deep visor which she raises when tackling a tough question. She loves theatre and it shows.   (more…)

 

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The Warehouse, a café and multi-stage theater facility operating on 7^th Avenue near the Convention Center, will close its bar and second stage in September preparatory to finding a new home, Producing Director Paul Rapport has announced.

“When we reopen in September (after a month-long August vacation in which the entire facility will be closed) we will be focusing on theater and art in our main section and on finding a new location. In the fall, the Warehouse will only be open for theater performances, art openings, etc.”

The Warehouse has been a venue for small theater, offbeat movies, and art since 1994.  A recent 500%+ increase in the property’s tax evaluation, and an anticipated commensurate increase in its real property tax, will make the site no longer economically viable for those purposes, however.  “We continue to meet with lots of different people in many neighborhoods - Columbia Heights, 9th & U, Bloomingdale/Eckington, NOMA, H St. NE, etc,” in an effort to find a new home”, Rapport said.

The Warehouse currently features Scena Theatre’s The Balcony, and the open run of Gross National Product’s Son of a Bush Saturdays at 8 and 10 p.m.  On June 30, the Warehouse will begin its “Art in Heat” outsider art exhibition, including “Tiki Party from Hell - Party or Burn!” a Lobster Boy Review show on opening night.  Art in Heat will continue through July 30. 

The Capital Fringe Festival, which has booked the venue for the Festival’s July 19-29 operation, will be unaffected by the upcoming shutdown.  “We will host over 100 performances in those 11 days.” Rapport said.

Rapport said that he and his mother and partner, Molly Rapport, are considering incorporation as either a for-profit or non-profit business.  “One thing that we are looking for right now…is someone to draft the paperwork for not-for-profit status,” Rapport said.  “We are also seeking potential investors if we go the route of a for-profit music & bar & restaurant space.”  Rapport urges interested parties to contact him at pwr@warehoustheatre.com.

DC THEATRE REVIEWS IS DEAD!   LONG LIVE DC THEATRE SCENE 

All right, it’s not that big a deal.  It’s just that this site has become so much more than reviews - it’s podcasts, news flashes, ticket deals, color and atmosphere - and “DC Theatre Reviews” just seemed kind of limiting.

So we changed our name and URL. And we changed web hosts - so those slow loads and disconnects should be a thing of the past.  We’ve changed our email too.  Reach us now at  theshow@dctheatrescene.com.

If you’ve bookmarked our site among your favorites, you don’t have to change a thing.  “Dctheatrereviews.com” will still take you to us.  Enjoy!

The staff of DC Theatre Reviews  Scene

Witches of Eastwick

Signature Theatre

Interviewed by Joel Markowitz

Produced by Lorraine Treanor

Marc Kudisch, who plays devil incarnate Darryl Van Horn, lays it on the line about Signature’s Witches of Eastwick.  It’s an adult musical with sex, bite and edge. New York’s been waiting for a show like this for years. .. A little dark. A little dirty. Hey - Broadway producers.  Get in on Witches of Eastwick while you still can.  We’ve got Marc’s pitch for you right here.  Witches of Eastwick is one big, bawdy, sexy, edgy musical.   

Listen here - includes a preview of his opening number ‘Darryl Van Horn’.

We’ve got the Witches, too. Our podcast with Emily Skinner, Jacqueline Pirot Donovan and Christiane Noll is right here.

 

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The Witches of Eastwick

Signature Theatre

Interviewed by Joel Markowitz

Produced by Lorraine Treanor

Broadway divas Emily Skinner, Jacqueline Pirot Donovan and Christiane  Noll are the three shunned divorcees of Eastwick, RI who become the high flying Witches.  This coven knows how to have a good time. Between laughs, they talk about their characters, about being onstage with the devil, Marc Kudisch, and the scene from the show that makes them crack up every night.

How is this show  different from any Broadway show they have ever done? Hear it here and get a preview of ‘Another Night with Darryl.’

Now hear what Marc Kudisch has to say about the Witches and the state of Broadway theatre. Click here.

 

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Music by Froggy Moody.  Lyrics by various artists.  Narrative by David J. Taylor

Produced by Landless Theatre Company

Directed by Andrew Lloyd Baughman

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Unspeakable living conditions, beggars, prostitutes, pickpockets, hideous death, surgical dismemberment, and rock-n-roll.  What could be cooler than that, eh?

Unfortunately, Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, is - and there is no other way I can put this - boring.  A bartender (David Bobb) gives us a straightforward narrative of the 1888 Whitechapel murders, periodically interrupted by sixteen bland songs.  The five victims (Jill Vanderweit, Renee Robban, Tiffany Garfinkle, Momo Nakamura, and KJ Jacks) step up in turn to be eviscerated by the Ripper (Nick Upchurch, wearing what appears to be a costume borrowed from the Scary Movie.)  Scenes from grimy Whitechapel are projected onto the wall. (more…)

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Meet filmmaker Dori Berinstein in Person Tuesday, June 26

It’s finally here.  The tell-all documentary Show Business: The Road to Broadway which opened last month in New York has just begun its run at the comfy  E Street Cinema and filmmaker Dori Berinstein takes questions next Tuesday following the 7:45 showing.

Find out how 2004’s Caroline, or Change, Taboo, Avenue Q and Wicked endured fund raising, rewrites, auditions, those prickly NYC critics, and the Awards ceremonies. Here’s how the NY Times described it:  ”They all had to endure scrutiny by a Greek chorus of theater critics and gossip columnists. (The rogues’ gallery includes Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood, critics for The New York Times, and The New York Post’s dapper scorpion of a theater columnist, Michael Riedel.) “ShowBusiness” is packed with telling details that the director, Dori Berinstein, was lucky to catch on camera: the “Avenue Q” composers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx hammering out a song; the “Caroline” director George C. Wolfe guiding his performers with tough yet empathetic creative notes; the “Taboo” producer and tabloid target Rosie O’Donnell urging theatergoers to paper the city with publicity materials for her show.”

Just announced -   Joel Markowitz sits down with director Dori Berinstein next week.  Watch for our podcast coming soon.

E Street Cinema is at 555 11th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004  (E Street between 10th and 11th Street) (202) 452-7672

Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins

By Stephen Temperley

Produced by Studio Theatre

Directed by Serge Seiden

Reviewed by Gary McMillan

Studio Theatre’s local premiere of Souvenir is a thorough delight, a finely crafted play that is perfectly showcased and wonderfully performed. Studio has brought local theatre-goers a two-character, master-class gem.

Lovable raconteur Cosme McMoon (J. Fred Shiffman) spins an affectionately humorous and warm-hearted reminiscence of his dozen years in the orbit of his late patron, Florence Foster Jenkins (Nancy Robinette), grand dame of early 20^th Century New York high society, and concert soprano ad absurdum . (more…)